Pursuit of a Travel Nurse Career

When Ronald Marcum started his job as a factory worker decades ago, he probably never realized how quickly the time would come that he would be a registered nurse. However, once he started that transition, it can’t be happening fast enough.

Marcum has been planning on a career change ever since his 25th year of working for Borg Warner, in the town of Muncie, Indiana. When he was 18, he started this factory job, and has now marked his 29 1/2 years there. He is the very last person who is still eligible for a 30-year retirement from the company, which is soon to be closing.

However, Marcum says that the fact of the plant’s closing has nothing to do with the fact that he wants to pursue a nursing degree. In fact, he admits to being very dissatisfied with his job for many years. Marcum is a quality-control gear inspector who readily talks about his years of factory work, taken when he was right out of high school. He admits that the job was easy, and as long as you showed up and did it, you were paid. Simple as that.

“But some years later, I decided that this wasn't cutting it; I just wish I had known that coming out of high school," Marcum said, excited about the career change ahead of him.

Marcus now juggles a full-time job with nursing classes at Ivy Tech Community College in Munice. A major incentive for him is the high demand for nurses who are well trained in their field. When he receives his nursing degree, he plans to become a traveling nurse. That way, he gets to see places that he hasn’t ever been able to before. He plans on doing so after getting in a year of local nursing experience, and hopes to finally settle in the Gatlinburg, Tennessee, or Ashville, North Carolina area.